Luxembourg PM tests positive for Covid

Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel is self-isolating for 10 days after testing positive for Covid shortly after a European Union summit, his office said Sunday.

But none of the other 26 EU leaders who attended the Brussels summit Thursday and Friday is considered a contact case, a statement said.

Under the rules in Luxembourg for containing the spread of the virus, close contact with a Covid sufferer is defined as spending more than 15 minutes with them at a distance of less than two metres (six feet) without a mask.

A spokeswoman for Bettel said he had respected the rules during the summit.

“No head of state or government figures on the list of the prime minister’s close contacts,” she added.

The statement from Bettel’s office said he had “light symptoms” including fever and headaches but “he will continue to carry out his tasks and functions” from home.

Bettel, 48, has so far received only a first vaccine dose.

The landlocked country of some 600,000 residents has recorded 70,600 cases of Covid and 818 deaths.